- 'Sup, you beautiful bastards?
You're watching "The Philip DeFranco Show,"
and we got a lotta news to talk about today.
We're talking about the beauty industry
versus Selena Gomez, Rihanna, and now Beyonce.
We look inside Gina Carano's
Musk-funded lawsuit against Disney.
Tucker Carlson's lying about his Putin interview
and even the Kremlin's calling him out.
The clown show in Congress is getting extra circusy.
Massive farmer protests are actually having an impact.
And why Jennifer Crumbley being found guilty
is so significant.
And then there's even more, so buckle up.
Hit that Like button to let YouTube know
you like these daily dives into the news,
and let's just jump into it.
Starting with, "You are guilty for the deaths caused
by your son's murders."
That is what a jury just told Jennifer Crumbley,
convicting her on four counts of involuntary manslaughter
related to a school shooting committed
by her then 15-year-old son back in 2021.
You know, there's been a lot of anticipation
about this ruling, not only just to see what's gonna happen
to Crumbley specifically,
but because this was widely seen
as a precedent-setting case.
Right, the argument that a parent
can be held responsible criminally
for their kid's shooting spree has been described
as a novel and unusual legal theory.
And so now that we've seen this play out here,
we may see more of this in the future.
Not just also with the shooter's father, James Crumbley,
who's going to trial
with an identical set of charges next month.
And so with this now setting precedent,
it's important to remember the specifics.
Right, the Crumbleys bought the gun for their son
used in the shooting as a gift just days before the attack,
with them giving him access to a firearm
despite his mental health struggles.
They then also ignored numerous alarming warning signs,
including on the day of the shooting,
teachers finding a note that he had left
with a drawing of a gun, someone being shot,
and the words, "The thoughts won't stop.
Help me."
There were some damning texts involved here.
You had the Crumbleys, yes, meeting with the counselors
but then refusing to take their son home for the day.
Also, notably, with Jennifer
and James having separate trials,
Jennifer's lawyers actually tried to argue
that her husband was responsible
because he improperly secured the gun.
But the jury just didn't buy that.
The jury foreperson telling the "Today" show this morning.
- For me, I just feel like Jennifer
didn't separate her son from the gun enough
to save those lives that day.
And I think the responsibility of securing the weapon
then falls on her.
- And so now, we'll have to wait to see what happens
to Jennifer because she faces up to 15 years in prison
for each count.
Though there, she'll reportedly be able
to serve each concurrently.
And then, help me, Elon Musk.
You're my only hope.
That absolutely top-notch, incredibly expensive recreation
is essentially what's believed to have gone down
between Gina Carano and Elon Musk.
Because he and X are now funding this massive
wrongful termination lawsuit against Disney.
'Cause you know, as you might remember,
Gina Carano, she was on "The Mandalorian."
But then, she got fired back in 2021
after making a handful of controversial social media posts.
Right, she shared memes on Twitter mocking mask mandates
during COVID, also suggesting that there was voter fraud
in the 2020 election.
Though the one that really ignited the most backlash
was a repost on her Instagram Story that said,
"Jews were beaten in the streets,
not by Nazi soldiers, but by their neighbors.
Most people today don't realize
that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers
could easily round up thousands of Jews,
the government first made their own neighbors hate them
simply for being Jews.
How is that any different from hating someone
for their political views?"
Right, so with that, you had many saying
that she was equating having fringe political beliefs
or even just being conservative to being Jewish
during the Holocaust.
And notably, when Disney announced
that they'd no longer be working with her,
the company called her post "abhorrent and unacceptable,"
with them also accusing her of
"denigrating people based on their cultural
and religious identities."
But now you got Gina firing back and Elon at her side,
filing that lawsuit yesterday accusing Disney
of discrimination in her firing.
And this is real.
The actual lawsuit says, this is word for word,
I'm not paraphrasing to be funny:
"A short time ago (regal music)
in a galaxy not so far away,
Defendants made it clear that only one orthodoxy in thought,
speech, or action was acceptable in their empire,
and that those who dared to question or failed
to fully comply would not be tolerated.
And so it was with Carano.
Carano was terminated from her role as swiftly
as her character's peaceful home planet of Alderaan
had been destroyed by the Death Star
in an earlier 'Star Wars' film.
And all this because she dared voice her own opinions,
on social media platforms and elsewhere,
and stood up to the online bully mob who demanded
her compliance with their extreme progressive ideology."
The lawsuit then going to more clearly argue
in like normal English that Disney retaliated against her
for expressing her political views
and then went on to damage her reputation
and hinder her ability to find work.
Claiming that she was treated differently
from male costars who were allowed
to express their political beliefs,
noting Pedro Pascal has been vocal in support
of Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ rights, and more.
Also referring to one post from 2017
where he suggested Trump is a Nazi sympathizer.
And so with all that, she's asking to be recast
and to receive damages of at least $75,000.
But Gina also then further discussing the case online.
Claiming on X that she was hunted down for her posts,
that her words were twisted to demonize her.
With this, thanking Elon and X for allowing her
to bring this case to light.
And as far as Elon and X, you know,
this is kind of a high-profile follow-through
on one of his previous promises.
Because he promised to cover the legal bills
for those who were treated unfairly by employers
over their posts on X.
And Elon, for his part, seems to be open
to growing this effort.
Writing yesterday, "Please let us know
if you would like to join the lawsuit against Disney."
Now, as of recording, Disney has not responded to the suit.
Though, we did see a lot of reactions,
including people who were weighing in
on why Elon likely decided
to help fund this particular case.
With Grant Kien, a communications professor
at California State University, East Bay
telling "The Washington Post:"
"Taking on Disney is sort
of a right-wing virtue signal right now.
There's also another part of this that's more likely
closer to Musk: He has a personal motivation
to fight with Disney, especially publicly,
since they pulled advertising from X."
So no matter the reason,
it is happening and we're gonna watch it all play out.
And while we wait to see,
I gotta pass a question off to you?
What are your thoughts here?
Do you feel like this is a legitimate lawsuit,
that Disney's in the wrong, or no,
do you think it's garbage?
Do you land somewhere in between?
Why? Why not?
I'd love to hear from you.
And then, in huge international news
and also news news, we need to talk about Tucker Carlson.
'Cause Tucker Carlson just interviewed Vladimir Putin.
And this has made waves for a number of reasons,
with one of them being in Tucker's announcement video,
he said he's doing this because no Western journalist
has bothered to interview Putin or report
on the Russian side of the war.
And that is just absolutely false and an intentional
and outright lie. (bell ringing)
You don't have to take my word for it
or any number of international journalists' word for it.
The literal Kremlin called bullshit on Tucker,
saying they'd actually received lots of requests
for interviews with Putin from Western outlets,
but that they have no desire to communicate
with that kind of media.
Tucker also conveniently ignores in this announcement
that two American reports, Evan and Alsu,
have been imprisoned in Russia for reporting
for nearly a year now,
and they've been denied a trial.
Also, just a fun little trivia fact for you:
12 of the 17 foreign journalists jailed
in foreign countries worldwide are in Russia,
where they also have a total of 22 journalists
sitting in detention.
And this as Russia continues to issue arrest warrants
for Russian journalists in other countries.
Accurately reporting on Putin and his war is treated
as a crime in Russia.
Tucker also said that the media's refusing
to tell the American people why he's waging this war,
which again, it's so weird.
It's like there's a trend here.
(bell ringing) Also not true.
American media not only aired Putin's speech
on the night that he invaded Ukraine;
it was covered endlessly.
Pretty much whenever Putin speaks on the war,
it's on the front page of every real news site in America.
He also said that Americans have no idea
what's actually going on in Russia or Ukraine.
But any American who doesn't know must just not care,
because it's not being withheld from them.
Understand that Tucker is not getting this chance
because he's the first one to ask.
Which again, false or outright lie.
He's getting this chance because the Kremlin sees him
as posing no threat to Putin or his regime.
With what Putin says, he'll either reaffirm it
or only slightly push back.
Because after all, this is the same guy who said
he's rooting for Russia.
- And why shouldn't I root for Russia?
- Because- - Which I am.
- Also, with this, you know, we've seen
some European officials floating sanctions
or even a travel ban for Carlson.
But I would say, don't do that.
Because while Carlson can understandably be criticized
for the misinformation that's he's pedaling of like,
"Oh, I'm the only Western journalist (laughing)
that's trying to talk to Putin," or also,
depending on the quality
and the content of the video itself,
possibly doing a horrible job
and just baby bird feeding Russian propaganda,
everyone, though not in Russia, has the fundamental right
to free speech and individual liberty.
And that also includes allowing a dictator
to stick his hand up your ass and use you like a puppet.
But hey, all this is still developing,
so follow to stay in the loop.
And then, why does every damn celebrity have
some beauty product?
'Cause it fuckin' works.
While over the past few years,
you may have been in the camp of,
"Man, the whole space feels too saturated,"
hell, even "The New York Times" putting out a piece in 2021
begging, "Dear Celebrities:
Please Stop Churning out Beauty Brands,"
well they didn't stop
and they just kept making more and more money.
NielsenIQ now releasing data
after following 43 celebrity beauty brands
and finding that they passed $1 billion in sales in 2023.
And the report explained:
"The sales growth of celebrity Beauty brands
surpassed growth of the total Beauty category,
up 57.8% while total Beauty was just up 11.1%
during that time."
And while they didn't specify all 43 brands,
some of the heaviest hitters were Rihanna's Fenty
and Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty.
Right, they've become absolute staples in the beauty space.
Also, obviously, you have Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian.
It's also noting that men have been making waves
in the space recently as well.
You had Harry Styles and Brad Pitt popping up.
And now, I mean, this just happened yesterday,
Beyonce teased her new haircare line
coming out later this month.
So obviously there's no shortage of big names wanting
to get in these spaces.
And what's been really interesting is seeing
how celebrities use this not as just like an extension
or a way to make money off of their name,
but using their products and their companies
as kind of these extensions of who they are
or maybe what they stand for.
Or like with Selena Gomez,
she's tied so much of Rare Beauty
to mental health awareness.
Also like with Rihanna and Fenty.
They go heavy in inclusion.
Like if you're not familiar with the beauty space,
you might not be aware.
Like Fenty has changed the industry.
Or like when they launched their foundation years ago,
they launched 40 shades.
And that was at a time that other companies in the industry
offered nowhere near that number,
let alone the number of different shades for darker skin.
Though to be fair, I do believe that MAC had like
a 43-shade line.
But I do believe that Fenty popularized this.
It made it far more standard.
And I think it's things like that
that allow these companies to not be seen
as just kinda like cash grabs, but again,
an extension of that celebrity,
which is where you got the attention, and their goals.
And so while, obviously,
with this story we're talking about beauty,
whether it be beauty or really any other space,
we are just going to continue seeing more
and more celebrity companies.
Like Logan Paul and KSI PRIME, your MrBeast Feastables.
I can't even call it the new state of business.
It's just the current state of business.
And then, you know, I feel like we all keep hearing
about this new scam out there
and how scammers are getting smarter about it.
Even job scams are on the rise.
Yeah, like offering fake job offers leading
to people giving up their personal information.
And there are important reminders to remind you,
beautiful bastards, to protect yourself online.
Protecting you and your loved ones,
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And then, you know, Republicans in Congress
are a mess right now.
Like if a Fyre Festival Porta Potty took human form.
'Cause last night, you had chaos reigning in both chambers.
You had House Republicans, even if just temporarily,
taking a humiliating L for them failing
to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Because Republicans had advanced two articles of impeachment
against him for what they said was
"willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law
and breach of public trust."
That, of course, despite the fact that they have no evidence
of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Which is, you know, widely seen as important
when you are trying to impeach someone
for high crimes and misdemeanors.
But despite that, the GOP still brought it to the floor,
thinking they had enough votes.
But it ended up playing up like a soap opera.
The Republicans thought they had the votes
because only three Republicans were joining Democrats
in voting against the impeachment.
But then, at the very last minute,
fresh from surgery, Democratic Representative Al Green
burst in and was like,
"No, you thought you could do this vote without me?
What just 'cause some doctors were cutting me open?"
And then after casting that surprise no,
he returned to the hospital.
So while that tied up the vote 215 to 215,
you then had a fourth Republican congressman flip
his vote to no.
And while there's been no shortage of including
this fourth representative, Blake Moore,
as one of the four traitors of MAGA land,
what Moore did was actually very smart.
Because it was actually a procedural move
that's gonna allow Republicans to bring this
to the floor again.
Which is also why I describe this as kind of
a temporary L for Republicans.
Because we've already seen Republican members vowing
to do just that and saying that they'll have the vote
they need when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise returns
from his cancer treatment.
But regardless, it was a massive and super embarrassing loss
for the GOP leadership.
It was also compounded by the fact
that Republican leadership also failed
to pass a $17.6 billion Israel aid package
that they brought to the floor the same day.
Right, that bill falling far short of the 2/3 majority
that it needed because of opposition
from both Democrats and Republicans.
Right, notably, that funding had initially been included
in the Senate's bipartisan immigration bill.
But you had House Speaker Mike Johnson moving this
to the floor as a standalone after declaring the border bill
dead on arrival, which was a move that pissed off
a ton of Democrats, including staunch supports of Israel,
who then condemned this as a political stunt.
But all of that was just in the House of Representatives.
We need to talk about the chaos in the Senate,
where we've been seeing Republicans going absolutely feral
over this bipartisan border bill.
A bill that, again, was negotiated with Republicans,
including big Republican asks,
and has the backing of major GOP leaders,
including Mitch McConnell.
Also, I can't believe we haven't talked about this.
You know who else absolutely loves this border bill?
U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
With their acting commissioner, Troy Miller,
sending out a memo to their leadership saying,
"To better respond to the volume of encounters
we have seen in recent years,
we need more resources and stronger enforcement tools
than currently available to manage migration at the border.
This proposed legislation would provide
the strongest set of tools we have had in decades
to effectively manage migration
and enhance our nation's border security."
With it then going on to praise all the things
it would accomplish, in addition to providing
"much-needed resources to our frontline personnel,
with over $6.8 billion in supplemental funding
for CBP alone."
Then going on to list even more that this bill would do
and saying, "Together, these tolls and resources
would enable us to maximize consequences against those
who unlawfully enter the country,
maintain order and security at the border,
and appropriately prioritize our essential national security
and public safety missions."
And while saying, "These proposed changes
won't fix everything in our immigration system.
Bt they are tough and fair.
And, if enacted into law, they would make meaningful
and substantial improvement to our nation's border
and national security."
Also, a fun little thing is that the Fox News correspondent
that first reported this, he got hit with so much hate
for, quote, "shilling," and he was like,
"I'm just reporting the news that's happening."
But none of that reality matters.
Because we're seen Republicans turning against the deal
they, themselves, helped broker.
And of course, it's because Trump told members
to vote against it.
Yesterday we saw McConnell admitting defeat,
telling reporters that the bill will not become a law
ahead of a Senate vote that's set for today
where it's 100% assured to fail.
But also, very notably, Republicans haven't just turned
on their own bill; they've turned on McConnell.
Right, this win for Trump marks a major loss for McConnell,
who has tried his damnedest to separate himself
and the party from the former president.
But as it's become clearer and clearer
that Trump is the 2024 nominee,
more Republicans have gotten in line.
And we're seeing this pop up even more,
like yesterday with several members
holding a press conference
where they slammed McConnell's handling on the border talks.
With Ted Cruz, who by the way, I don't agree with Trump,
has a lovely wife, even going as far as to call
for McConnell to step down from leadership and nothing
that his colleagues have previously supported that as well.
- [Journalist] Is it time for Mitch McConnell to go?
- I think it is.
Look, everyone here also supported a leadership challenge
to Mitch McConnell in November.
I think a Republican leader should actually lead
this conference and should advance
the priorities of Republicans.
- Now, McConnell, for his part,
has brushed off these threats.
But I think, like with his health issues,
that doesn't mean that it's gonna be going away
any time soon.
Unless something dramatic or unexpected happens,
it appears that Trump will continue siphoning power
away from McConnell.
So yeah, a Fyre Festival Porta Potty-level mess.
That's the state of things right now, and for some,
that is the perfect plan.
And then, we've got tractors as far as your eyes can see,
with thousands of farmers across Spain right now staging
their second day of protests
over the European Union's farming policies.
And these protesters in Spain using their tractors
to block national highways,
and according to Reuters, they've blocked 15 major roads
across the country.
Also, on the east coast, they've blocked access
to the Port of Castellon, blocking the main entrance
with their tractors, burning tires,
and staging a sit-down protest.
And there, notably, it never became violent.
They were eventually removed one by one by police.
The protest certainly wasn't limited to just that one port.
Right, a state news agency reporting
that 1,000 tractors were making their way
to Barcelona's city center.
We saw them blocking traffic and meeting
with local authorities to discuss their grievances.
And again, these are just a couple of examples.
You have farmers protesting across the country.
And this as there's a major demonstration planned
for Madrid in a few weeks.
And all this is part of a larger protest
happening across Europe.
Right, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy
all seeing similar protests for similar reasons.
And according to the BBC, right, a big part of this
are the regulations that make up a part
of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy combined
with high costs for fuel and energy.
So it's making it hard for farmers to turn a profit.
And with that, one protester saying,
"The costs, when it comes to producing wheat and barley,
are very high.
You've gotta pay for fertilizer, pesticides, fuel-
it's killing us.
We have to pay very high prices
and yet we sell at low prices."
And Spanish protesters have specifically been pointing
their finger outside the EU, saying
that non-EU countries aren't expected
to follow the same regulations,
which then just means they can sell their produce
for cheaper, which undercuts Spain's farmers.
With one further argument,
"We have to undergo a lot of controls,
a lot of sanitary regulations which products
from non-EU countries are not subject to.
We just want a future for farming and right now,
we don't see it."
And all of these problems also come
as Spanish farmers are battling with drought,
with many areas not getting enough rain,
which has impacted harvests.
In fact, Catalonia just declared a state of emergency
due to a three-year long drought,
their longest on record.
Now, what we're seeing here is that these protests
have kicked off some action both in the Spanish government
and the EU itself.
With Spanish prime minister promising
in front of parliament to help the farmers
and take their case up the ladder.
And then their Agriculture Ministry announced
that just under 300 million would be going
to around 140,000 farmers to compensate them
for Spain's drought problem alone,
with issues related to the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the European Commission, right,
the executive branch of the EU,
they've already now made several concessions to farmers
regarding environmental rules.
And they just decided to shelve their plan
for cutting the use of pesticides in half,
with its vice president saying that, quote,
"Resource scarcity, price shocks
and an increasingly competitive global market
is having a huge impact on the farming sector
and rural communities."
And also adding, "We have seen from the farmers protesting
on the streets of Europe that many of them feel trapped,
that their needs are not being met, so we must act."
You know, we're seeing some actions.
We're seeing some words, but at the end of the day,
those are just words.
And so we'll be keeping our eyes on this situation,
especially in the coming weeks,
as that major protest in Madrid gets closer and closer.
And then, for your final two things on today's show,
the first is a big thank you and also, I guess,
an announcement/reminder.
This week, we just did our first mini drop of the year
over at BeautifulBastard.com.
New graphic tees, hoodies, and crews,
which if you haven't seen yet,
includes our "Yeah, no, I'm fine" goodness
and our "Embrace Change" comfiness among other things.
Which you can snag right now over at BeautifulBastard.com.
But then finally, we should talk about yesterday today,
where we dive into those comments
and see what y'all had to say about yesterday's craziness.
And actually, the comments start with a positive.
No shortage of people, like AdelWolf, sharing,
"'Crutches help people heal' was one
of the most profound things
my last therapist ever said to me,
and more people need to hear it!
Call it a crutch, a stepping stone,
or that lil' wheelie knee scooter;
take every opportunity to heal more deeply
and become strong enough
you don't need the crutches anymore."
The people also commenting, yeah, it's about balance.
Right, saying things like, "Things always get lost somehow.
If you use a crutch too long, atrophy sucks.
But crutches are needed."
And Jeremiell saying, "A crutch can be easy
to become reliant on, because it takes intention
and effort to get off of them."
And others adding not using a crutch
can be far more dangerous than using them too long.
Which I also think comes back to like most things in life.
There's stuff out there,
and a lot of like the whether this is a good or a bad thing,
it's on the how you use them, how you interact with things.
Also in those comments, there was a lotta conversation
around the leaked audio story,
right, the one that resulted
in the $25 million defamation judgment.
And a lotta the conversation had to do
with the excuse or the explanation
of the guy that went into the rant where he said
f'ing n-words that he said (laughing)
was because of his blood sugar.
With y'all saying things like,
"As a type one diabetic, I can confidently say
we do not turn into grand dragons
when we have high blood sugar."
Though ArikYoung not believing it, saying,
"Sounds like something a high blood pressured
type one diabetic that transforms into a dragon would say,
but I don't know."
KantFromEC adding, "High Blood Pressure Diagnoses:
fatigue, joint aching, over the top racism,
reduced sense of smell.
Yeah that makes sense."
And then in general, there was just a lotta love
that we did that deep dive into advanced recycling
and all the bullshit around it.
So there were a lotta reasons for you to catch up
on that show if you missed it.
That's definitely one of 'em.
But that is where we're gonna end today's show.
Thought don't worry, I'm not going anywhere,
'cause my name's Philip DeFranco.
You've just been Phil'd in.
I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.